A Pre-Television Memory About Newspapers

 

The Des Moines Register was the newspaper I grew up reading. During the week it was delivered by our rural mail carrier along with our daily mail. But early in the early morning hours on Sunday, it was delivered to our door by a special "Sunday paper carrier". 

There was even a dedicated newspaper holder attached next to the backdoor. It was a slender piece of metal with a decorative curve at the top, a straight section which fit against the door frame before billowing out in a large semi-circle to hold the newspaper, ending in another straight piece with an attached, small, dish shaped coin holder.

The Sunday paper carrier collected for the entire week and it was important to put the money out for him before going to bed Saturday night. I don't remember the price of the paper then, but it was something like ten cents a day and a quarter on Sunday. i.e. something like eighty-five cents. Mom always tried to put out the exact change, but if she didn't have it, she would put out a dollar bill or four quarters and the driver would leave the difference along with the little paid receipt. In those days of my 25 cent allowance, I was always on the lookout for unclaimed loose change. Once in awhile I would find a forgotten dime and nickel in that coin holder. And therein lies the heart of this memory.

Back then, before television became the standard form of entertainment, neighbors got together to visit. Often the adults played cards while the kids ran around outside playing tag, hide-and-seek or kick-the-can. I was on the porch at their back door when I noticed they had a paper holder just like ours. Whether out of habit or curiosity, I reached up and felt inside the little coin dish - and found money! I knew it wasn't enough to be the full amount of what a week of papers cost. I reasoned it must have been the leftover change. So I took it. I don't know how much later it was that I learned not all families took the full week of newspapers. Some only got the Sunday edition. The money I took might have been for that. I would never know. Just as I never admitted to my theft.

That was sixty-seven years ago. Any statute of limitations expired long ago. Obviously my guilt feelings have not. Perhaps now admitting my childish misbehaviour will ease my troubled mind and put this troubling memory to rest. 

However, it does bring up another question. Why did Dad take the Des Moines Register which was a more liberal, Democratic leaning paper, instead of the Omaha World Herald, which was not only more popular in our Southwest corner of the state, but more like my father, conservative and Republican?